United micro kingdoms: A design fiction (2013), critical design FAQ (2007)

Abstract

The United Micro Kingdoms (UmK) was a design experiment commissioned by the Design Museum, London, UK, from 1st May-31st August 2013. Collections like the Wellcome Trust, Pitt Rivers, and London Museum hold everyday objects from past or distant societies. When we see a strange shoe or ritualistic object we wonder what kind of society must have produced it, how it was organised; what values, beliefs and dreams motivated its citizens; if it was wealthy or poor; democratic, feudal or totalitarian. We become conceptual window shoppers, trying things out in our minds, imagining how we would interact with them, use them, wear them, and how they would affect our interactions with others. It requires a lot of imaginative effort from the viewer, but it leaves room for individual interpretation. If rather than looking back in time, we presented people with hypothetical products from alternative versions of our own society, or a near future, would people begin to relate to them in the same way—a sort of speculative material culture, fictional archeology or imaginary anthropology?.